Rapid borate fusion pre-treatment for ICP-AES determination of tungsten in high-speed steel

This paper suggests a rapid decomposition and dissolution method for stable solution preparation in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry when tungsten in a highspeed steel is quantified. The steel sample was decomposed with a mixture of hydrofluoric and nitric acid, and then the resulting solution was fused with lithium tetraborate. The vitrified borate was able to dissolve in nitric acid containing tartaric acid to prepare the final sample solutions. This pre-treatment method has a superior feature: borate could effectively prevent tungsten hydrolysis in the prepared solution. The standard for quantification could be prepared in a similar procedure using metal standard solutions. The present method enabled more rapid and accurate determination of tungsten in certified reference materials of high-speed steel compared to the conventional dissolution procedure.